carlablackiae OG1x5 x cerrocampense

carlablackiae OG1x5 x cerrocampense

This one crosses a good story with a good pollen donor. The seed parent is an ecotype cross from Scott Cohen, and mine has a history behind it too - I bought a carlablackiae seedling from Enid at NSE, promptly killed it, whined about it, and she sent me this one to make up for my failure. Most people chase the thin-veined, quiet versions of carlablackiae, named I believe for the Heliconia grower Carla Black down in Central America, but I've always preferred this louder, thicker-veined one. It's already made some killer hybrids, so I figured it deserved another shot.

The pollen parent, cerrocampense, is one of the few waxy-leaved members of section Cardiolonchium, round as a dinner plate with a bright yellow spadix. Mine throws a generous amount of fragrant pollen and has been turning up in a lot of good crosses lately. It doesn't get tall, and it's been perfectly content outside through west Georgia summers, so no complaints there either. Put the two together and you get a seedling with a bit of the vein drama from one side and the round, waxy calm of the other. Early yet, but I like where this is headed.